Poll

Today's News

All but one Jeffco school board member is barred from speaking to the press about issues related to the board’s activities, a board member recently informed the Columbine Courier.

Under a policy adopted in 2000, only the Board of Education president, currently former Jeffco district attorney Dave Thomas, is allowed to respond to press queries on all topics not exclusive to a single board member.

LAKEWOOD — Interim head coach Tony Barba knew the Dakota Ridge softball team could be heading into a trap on Oct. 2 at Bear Creek. But the Eagles were ready and that trap was never sprung as Dakota Ridge hit, pitched and fielded at a high level and thrashed the Bear Creek Bears, 16-0.

“They knew what’s at stake. This is one of those games that’s a trap game so they just came in here and took care of business, got everyone some playing time and got out of here,” Barba said.

A South Jeffco couple were charged Sept. 29 with multiple counts child abuse and are suspected of beating their adopted 6-year-old son with a belt buckle and keeping him severely malnourished.

Investigations into Randal and Christine Arnold’s treatment of the boy began on Sept. 17, when Littleton Fire Rescue workers responded to an emergency call at the couple’s home. The boy was found unresponsive and covered with bruises, an arrest affidavit states.

Motorcyclists who participated in the fourth annual Emily’s Parade on Sunday weren’t the only ones who enjoyed the ride from South Jeffco to Bailey — people lined U.S. 285 and cheered the riders on their way to Platte Canyon High School.

Nearly 2,000 motorcycles made the 45-mile trip to remember Emily Keyes, who was killed by a gunman at Platte Canyon High School on Sept. 27, 2006. The parade raises money for the I Love U Guys Foundation, a nonprofit headed by Emily’s father, John-Michael Keyes.

Damage to Jeffco’s infrastructure will cost the county $531,000 in coming months to cover emergency repairs. Repairs are needed, county officials said last week, in the Taj Mahal’s parking garages and in a section of the Laramie Building, which has shifted due to clay deposits below the foundation.

The county will transfer funds from a planned software acquisition and a concrete-improvement project at the Taj in cover the repair costs.

The former Table Mountain Animal Center site could soon be set ablaze or used for target practice in the months before it would be demolished. Jefferson County officials said they might invite local emergency-service agencies to use the vacant building for firefighting training and tactical police exercises.

In August, the shelter relocated to its new incarnation, Foothills Animal Shelter.

It’s time to talk openly about suicide, and to get public officials to put suicide prevention on their radar so they help find the funding that will save lives, a group of suicide awareness advocates stressed at a town hall meeting recently.

“This is a topic that makes people uncomfortable,” said Jarrod Hindman, program director at the Colorado Office of Suicide Prevention. However, keeping the topic of suicide in the shadows only allows the stigma to continue, he said.